In this episode of The Journey, we sit down with Simone van Trojen, founder of LaDress, who built a Dutch fashion brand from a single product into a business that has lasted twenty years.

Simone came from the corporate world. She spotted a gap in the market: one versatile, high-quality dress, sold online, at a time when e-commerce was still new. She took ten months to build her first website and launched with one product in four colours. The first 250 units were stored in her mother’s attic for about a day. Once the site went live, the orders came in and the concept was proven. From there, she scaled LaDress into a full collection.

She talks about what it takes to keep a brand going for two decades: reinventing yourself again and again, and the discipline to step away from channels that don’t fit, like the physical stores that didn’t match the LaDress DNA. Her view on quality is simple: invest in something that’s built to last. That’s where she sees the parallel with Travelteq. Two Dutch companies working with skilled craftspeople, Travelteq handmade in Italy and LaDress produced in Europe, both making quality the core of the business.

She closes with the book she recommends to every entrepreneur, True North, and its three criteria for choosing your direction: work that drives you, work you’re good at, and work that makes a difference.